Obesity Surgery

Stories of Altered Lives

"Obesity Surgery is based on interviews with thirty-three gastric-bypass patients reflecting on life before and after surgery. Their accounts describe the frustrations of limited mobility and energy, as well as the sometimes heartbreaking isolation the seriously overweight endure in a society that views excess poundage as a character flaw. The changes these patients encountered as their weight dropped were sometimes exhilarating, sometimes bewildering. They had to deal with the varied reactions of family members and associates, complications of romance and dating, and a new self-image, and they had to confront the factors that made them obese in the first place, all the while following a severely restricted diet. And they often had to learn that some of the problems they had attributed to their obesity were still there after they lost weight."--Jacket.